Pakistan's Abbottabad Turns Fertile Ground For New 'Terror Factory': Sources

Three terrorist groups - Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, and Jaish-e-Mohammed - all banned by the Indian government, have reportedly established a joint training facility in Abbottabad, Pakistan, within the grounds of a campus owned by the country's Army, reported NDTV.

Sources indicated that the camp is "completely secure" due to its proximity to a Pakistani Army base, making unauthorised access nearly impossible without the military's approval.

A General, assigned to Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI, is thought to be overseeing the camp, where young men and women are being trained in various combat skills, including the handling of firearms.

Abbottabad is the location where former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden resided in a fortified compound, which was targeted by United States special forces in May 2011, resulting in bin Laden's death. Pakistan demolished the structure in 2012.

Intelligence sources informed NDTV that this new training camp - it is unclear if it stands on the site of bin Laden's former compound - is a large-scale "terror factory" managed by Hafiz Saeed, Syed Salahuddin, and Masood Azhar, the leaders of Lashkar, Hizbul, and Jaish, respectively. All three are on the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) most-wanted list.

This facility is believed to be a recruitment centre for the three groups.

News of this camp emerges after a series of terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir over the past week, including Thursday night's attack on an Army vehicle in Baramulla district, which left two soldiers and two civilians dead and injured three others.

Earlier the same day, a migrant labourer from Uttar Pradesh was shot and wounded in Ganderbal. Three days prior, six construction workers and a doctor were killed in one of the most serious recent attacks on civilians, which led newly elected Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to condemn the "dastardly and cowardly" strike.

The day after that attack, a new terror group, Tehreek Labaik Ya Muslim, was dismantled following raids across several districts in Jammu and Kashmir.